Digitization and You
Neesima Founders Day Lecture
Doshisha University
Nov.25, 2014
Robert E. Cole, Prof. Emeritus,
UC Berkeley
Visiting Researcher, ITEC
Doshisha University
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A Macro Perspective on
Digitization’s Impact• Digitization’s impact on political systems• Digitation impact on the economy• The Digitization of almost everything• Digitization as a two edged sword• Who decides?

2What is Digitization?
How is it Enabled?
• Digitization is about taking information andconverting it all into ones and zeroes –In otherwords- into a stream of bits, where it can be stored
in a computer, analyzed, reformulated, often
repurposed and transmitted over a network.
• Digital technologies are those that have hardware,
software and networks at their core.
• Digitization becomes enabled by information
technology (IT).
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Digitization’s
Transformative Impact
is Accelerating.
Why and How?

4

What Can we Learn fromthe Evolution ofConsole Video Games

5

Big Data and Agriculture• Big data is a term for any collection ofdata sets so large and complex that it
becomes difficult to process using
traditional data processing applications.
The challenges include analysis, capture,long term data preservation, search,
sharing, storage, transfer, visualization,and privacy considerations
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Prescriptive Planting is a system whichtells farmers precisely which crops toplant, which seeds to plant, how deep
to plant them, optimum distance
between rows, and how to cultivatethem in each farm patch.
Analysis and repurposing of Big Dataenables this system.

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Prescriptive Planting:
The Challenges ofImplementation

8

Japanese Indoor
Hydroponic Farming• The case of Fujitsu’s low potassium
vegetable hydroponic farming

9

What is Holding Back Japan
From Making Stronger
Contributions to Digitization
Enabled Innovations?

Its SOFTWARECapabilities
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IT As New 3k Jobs in Japan
Versus Its High Standing
in the U.S.
Computer Science Standing
Among Engineering
DisciplinesinJapan• .
Versus U.S.

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Importance for Japan• Why is it important that the best and thebrightest students major in IT related
fields?
• Why is it important for Japan that it
excel in digitization enabled IT
innovations?

12IT Values• Opt-in vs. Opt-out• Transparency vs. Privacy

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Health Care andDigitization (I)14

Health Care andDigitization (II)
Personalized Medicine

15Source:Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, The Second Machine Age, W.W. Norton&Co, 2014.

Impact on Jobs:
Digitization Versus
Globalization

17

Is Digitization Reallya Job Killer?
What is Happening now?

18

Working with Computers
Human’s unique Capability:
Creating new ideas andConcepts
19

Humans Can Take in aBroader Frame than Can
Digital Technologies
Can we Cultivate Mondai
Ishiki in Young People?

Source:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4f/Briggs_house.jpg/1280px-Briggs_house.jpg

Concluding Thoughts:
Role of Citizens andUniversities in Digital Age22

Some Definitions of Needed Skills Now
and in the Future• Critical Thinking: The ability to work with data,to accumulate it, analyze it and synthesize it,in order to make balanced assessments andsmart decisions• Analytical Capabilities: If you are analytical,
you are good at taking a problem or task andbreaking it down into smaller elements inorder to solve the problem or complete thetask.
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